Here are several lessons learned along the journey of entrepreneurism:

• People are limited by what they know. After 13 years in large corporations, I knew I could serve SOHO businesses and entrepreneurs more effectively as my own company. Positive Potentials LLC was born out of that burning desire.

• Freedom is a personal value for me. It was freedom to make decisions, not free time! When driven by a passion for one’s work, it’s not work (Confucius said that), but the hours can take over one’s life. Time management is a huge challenge.

• The biggest challenge in starting was to get the word out. Interestingly, people I previously worked with began to hire me because they enjoyed working with me. Marketing was the answer to creating sustainability.

• I networked morning, noon, and night to create a presence and persona for Positive Potentials. I was able to receive feedback on how people perceived business coaching and where the gaps were in their businesses—I was curious and I did more listening than talking.

Certain truths became self-evident (smile):

Coaching shortens your learning curve—The one with the shortest learning curve LEADS!™

• People start businesses but run them like a hobby.
• My clients didn’t have time to go back to school to learn what they needed to know; business coaching filled many gaps for them in the business process from accounting to marketing.
• Coaching provided a safe, non-judgmental space for quick learning. The information was useful and immediately applicable to the entrepreneur’s issues. I formulated a body of work called the EMBA Program that ultimately became a 12-week certification process for small business owners.
• The entrepreneurs I coached were great at what they wanted to do. I called them my Widget Makers.

The flip side, though, was they hadn’t a clue how to run a business. With a fierce resistance to hiring expertise, once entrepreneurs connect value to coaching, they love it and welcome the shared experience.

See if you can relate or agree that these are the looming, persistent challenges I found. Please send me your feedback and comments:
• Self-promotion was hard for people.
•    They didn’t budget time and other resources wisely based on a plan; they became reactive to the situations.
•    They wanted to do everything themselves. They perceived it was too expensive to hire experts and found out the hard way how much time and money they wasted with a steep learning curve.
•    Time management was a huge challenge. There was little balance between personal and business.

I would be glad to post and share, with your permission, yours and others’ comments.